Category Archives: Shoegaze

‘Inhale Day’, the first part of a two part EP project called ‘Breathe Life’ by ‘Said the Ghost’ (the solo project of Brighton based Jamie Lees), just came out on Summer Solstice. The second part of this grand production will be out on Winter Solstice, and that should literally cover the long and short of it ;). As for Inhale Day, it is a celebration of new beginnings with its shoegazy meditative guitar riffs, soulful singing and a distinctive fusion-hymnlike vibe which submerges your mind and unleashes splashes positive energy in your limbic system. What is clearly impressive is Jamie’s musical and vocal prowess. For starters, his soothing yet versatile voice will be at home in musical styles as diverse as Indian and Irish. To top it off, the eclectic sound that draws some comparisons to Everything Everything and Dutch Uncles, Grizzly Bear, Field Music, White Denim, War on Drugs, St.Vincent, even Stevie Wonder at times, is something that Jamie and Nick Lewis (Mastering) should be very very proud of. We can’t recommend this enough and please purchase this EP from the band camp links below and encourage Jamie for an even more stupendous return with the second part ‘Exhale Night’ later this year. Get ready to get immersed:

Kips Golden, who goes by the pseudonym Gudjohr, returns after the supposed darkness in his last EP, titled Looks Kinds Lunar, to attain an enlightened aura in his latest EP, titled ‘Eliza Glow’. This spiritual awakening is sort of mirrored in the music and vocals of this album which starts off with tracks which sound more like internal conversations until the questioning and finally acceptance in the later ones. Like most processes that shape things and persons to attain a fine cut or a steely resolve, it isn’t easy and the mood of the album is therefore intense and sombre. Having said that, like many other such pleasures in life, this bitterness is very enjoyable, a great exercise in psychadelia, slightly remniscent of the ‘The Wall’. Here are couple of our favourites:

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New York based self styled musician ‘Maxwell Demon’, who we featured a couple of times last year has come up with the perfect combination of melody and distortion in his latest track called ‘Tears’. With great lyrics and a simple yet mesmerising drum beat to boot, this is just what the doctor ordered to cuddle up under your blanket and listen on repeat for this unforgiving winter’s day:

This song, like most of the others posted by Maxwell are legitimately downloadable for free via soundcloud. So feast your ears and spread the word!

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UK based father daughter duo ‘SPC ECO’ (pronounced Space Echo) comprising Dean Garcia (formerly Curve, Eurythmics) and Rose Berlin have released their latest EP titled Push. This is a funky, noir, dimension altering, space skewing piece of work which is in one word best described as layered. Like a trifle pudding or a shepherd’s pie, based on your preferences for the sweet or salty, there is much to cherish and bite into. The base lines are solid, rhythms catchy, the programming and percussions are top notch and Rose has such a damningly evocative/seductive voice, that these songs are orgasmic in themselves or alternatively offer perfect background music for such dopamine releases! Go afro in the sac with this aphrodisiac or in one word ‘Push’ ;):

Space Echo usually collaborate with many artistes for their EPs and on this particular one they feature and thank:
Jarek Leskiewicz for his shimmering guitars and Slade Templeton Electronica on Push (Lady Barcelona) Remix. If you like what you hear, purchase this EP for a very attractive price on bandcamp: http://spceco.bandcamp.com/album/push-ep

Park Planet are a Glasgow based band who like strong melodies and great tunes, at least according to the self description on their soundcloud page. Talk about understatement! I got wind of this band by the soundcloud weather reports and a few eargasms later allow me declare that they seem to be number ‘667’, i.e. one step ahead of this beast called music which consumes most of my time, attention and devotion.

The electronica, drums, guitar lines and vocals blend perfectly and create a mood which you probably won’t discover in the music of many of their contemporaries. The lyrics are usually a simple mantra, almost chant-like to ensure that you become worshippers, followers or in cases like yours truly, evangelists.

Swedish musician Andreas Österberg who goes by the name of Det mekaniska undret, came up with the novel and unexplored question : What do people listen to when they travel by public transport?. This was the inspiration for him to create a music album based on the route covered by Tram 11 in his city Gothenburg, which has the most extensive tram network in Scandinavia. The concept is great and the execution even better. Each station on the track gets a sing and some also get a video. As is with every city, every neighbourhood or every phase of the journey has a distinctive mood or flavor which has been beautifully captured by Andreas’s music. I cannot follow the vocals, as I don’t understand Swedish, but if you ever needed an example of music being free from the barriers of language, this is your album A sample of the music on offer in the album:

The whole video-playlist for the album is there on youtube and can be viewed by clicking:

All this happened a year ago, but more recently Andreas has come up with a shoegazy track called Sockerbruket. This is strikingly different from his earlier work and kicks serious arse. It starts off slowly with a delayed oscillating buildup and then the drums kick in at the perfect instant followed by the bare essential distorted vocal sounds. This then leads us to the part where the flangey guitar/high-pitched piano comes in and as a final addition to complete this flavorsome recipe, we have the wonderful garnishing of the keyboards. I especially liked the part where after the drop the song changes texture and then ends with a wonderful screechy sound. Enough said, listen and enjoy:

The soundcloud weekly weather report has brought the British Band ‘Rehearsed Living’ on my radar about half an hour ago. Am mighty impressed by the shoegazy/easy feel of their songs and vocals which sound like, in the words inspired by Alex from ‘A Clockwork Orange’ : ‘like silvery wine flowing in a spaceship, gravity all nonsense now. As I slooshied, I knew such lovely pictures!”.

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Maxwell Demon, a talented Bellport, New York based musician whom we introduced in mid August has come up with a video for the single ‘Homewrecker’ from his maiden album Strange Beings. It is a great hazy tune, which you wish went on endlessly. The guitars are muddy, the drums are a treat and the vocals complement the mood as nicely as the waves caressing the beach shown in the video.

In short, Everything under the sun is in tune:

All the songs are available for legitimate free download at his soundcloud page. So listen, enjoy, spread the joy!

When I read the words ‘Shoegaze’ in the Genre tags, I said to myself : ‘It has been a while! ‘ . Maxwell, a musician from Long Island sent me the link to his album ‘Strange Being’. After hearing the tracks, I have to say it brings back memories of The Cure and surprisingly, the earlier works of The Smashing Pumpkins from their Siamese Dream and Machina Albums. The sound apart from being mostly shoegaze also incorporates other sub-genres like psychadelic rock, dreamy-synth and chillout . All this is only the beginning until you listen to the vocals, which are smooth, crip and one of the better voices I’ve heard all year. The melodies are haunting, catchy, and don’t ever jarr your ears by overdoing the distortion effects, which some bands go haywire with these days. The lyrics are well-written, meaningful and stuff you can relate to. To sum it up this is collectively an accomplished piece of work by a very talented musician\song-writer\vocalist. It looks like he is severely underrated\under-valued at the moment and if this were a stock on the stock-exchange, I would pick it up now and enjoy the billion dollar returns later. Ergo, the stuff is legitimately downloadable for free at: Bandcamp (smaller file sizes here) and Soundcloud .

I had a hard time choosing which ones to share as the whole album sounds too good, but here are the Top of the Tops: